Are there any companies you avoid?
 

Are there any companies you boycott or avoid? If yes, which ones and why? :)

Pepsi. Because they raised the prices from 1.00 to 1.25 in the teachers lounge at work! Here we are educating the future and they think we do not pay enough for a bottle of pepsi. All of us went out and bought coke products and put in our fridge. pshh

actually whitemike, it is not Pepsi who raised the prices, but the seller who is distributing the product to your place... actually, the basic price from Pepsi like Coke or any distributed beverage is fixed... the distributor is making its profit by raising it... the more you drink, the higher the price.. lol

No love? You ruined my time to shine. Thanks :(

Google!
Because there taking over soon :|

isn't it a good thing?!... until i see a Google?(microsoft?) with it, i'm ok.. lol

Best Buy - They have the worst service locally and nothing is priced on the store shelves.

Albertsons - Since the last strike, their quality of service has declined so much that if I want to go someplace without customer service, I might as well go to Wal-mart and save money at the same time.

McDonalds - When I was in high school, I could never eat there without getting sick.

Food 4 Less - Their stores are filthy. Filthy stores are not a place where I want to buy my food at.

Vons / Pavilions - I don't agree with the philosophy of the CEO.

Stater Bros. - See Food 4 Less

I used to avoid Walmart because they don't have the best track record with their employees. However they have made a lot of changes lately that I have learned from actual employees. They are also one of the largest chains in the world that is employing green initiatives throughout their stores. Finally, they have more organic foods in the local supercenter than the Natural Foods store on the other side of town. I don't agree with their Monopsony form of business but if they get their suppliers to cut even 1/10th of their waste in the immediate future, it is good overall for the rest of us. Add to this that they are educating consumers about reusing bags, switching to CFLs and other energy efficiency models is good as well. They also plan on installing 30,000 megawatts of solar energy on their 2500 stores and distribution centers. All in all, their programs have done more for the environment in the United States than the EPA.

Wal-Mart: Worst store ever!!! K-Mart is way better than Wal-Mart.

I haven't been to a K-Mart in 15 years... I am not even sure if the local one is still open. I know they closed two other stores in the area recently. We have 4 Wal-marts and 3 Targets though. They are talking about building a 5th Wal-mart and a 4th Target as well.

I hate Wal-Mart so much. They go from Wal-Mart to Super Wal-Mart.

As for Target, it's a good store to go shopping.

Another store I avoid is Home Depot =]

We still have one in my local area so I'm sure one is hiding around you somewhere. Check the old dying strip malls....that's where they like to hide them at. ;)

How dare you! :mad: I love Pepsi so much I've been allowing it to slowly kill me since 1992! ;) Dida know is was called "Brad's Drink" when it was first sold? Dida know it comes from the state of North Carolina? Obviously I like it a bit too much because I know useless trivia about it. :D

I don't really avoid places unless they get me really mad. Right now I'm avoiding Wendy's because they served me undercooked chicken. I swear I was so close to driving back that night and raising all sorts of hell! They are lucky my parents forced me to take anger management when I was a kid. :mad:

<a href="http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpepsi.htm" target="_blank">http://inventors.about.com/library/i...rs/blpepsi.htm</a> >> The history of Pepsi, to be sure Brad is right.. lol

Well if you were to like Dr. Pepper, then i would care...but you dont.

Recording companies that put rootkits or licensed (download license to play) material on CD.

Boycotted.

I try to avoid fast food places. The prices are good; The anticipation is good; the food tastes good; the after-feeling not so good.

Any clothing brand that is not Ralph Lauren/Polo (with the exception of shoes and underwear :D).

I boycotted
Pepsi - When I was in the Persian Gulf I saw a case of Pepsi cans that were bad - (the stench and pouring it out was like pouring maple syrup - they got too hot). The Cokes didn't mutate.

McDonalds (actually my whole family boycotted this one). We got tired of the food tearing our stomaches up.

Wal-Mart (just 80% of the items they sell). I refuse to purchase any clothing from there (the last two clothing items I purchased there lasted two weeks before each ripping in half). I shopped elsewhere for a very similar item (that looked nearly identical) and they lasted me 16 months each before I modified them - and I still have them.

I'm drinking a can of it right now. ;) As I kid I figured out it was the best soda for burping contests and I've drank it ever since. I prefer pepsi though...just drink it too fast and have to switch to DP when I run out. :p

You wanna talk about bad can drinks? :p A friend and I used to watch dogs piss on can drinks all the time! :( A lot of stores keep can drinks outside when they first come in...apparently dogs like them just as much as car tires and trees. ><

Do you just avoid their software or do you boycott their hardware as well? I think you know who I'm talking about...;)

I like iTunes. :)

Well, if we are thinking about the same company, I have yet to buy any of their hardware lately, though that's not to say it's because I'm boycotting them.

Mostly just music.

I've seen that happen as well, not just canned drinks either, pretty much anything dogs came up to - to "mark." I saw this in Memphis growing up.

Did you check your trousers for strange spots lately? :D

LOL! This was a distance away from me and it was 20-25 years ago.

haha

Must resist urge to tell story involving my right leg and my friends Tom Cat :D

Don't let us hold you back Brad.

Indeed, you've got us all intruiged :p

Chris

I'm holding lunch to hear it Brad.

My brother's Calculus II teacher last year bought a new computer, and noticed that hardware was acting up. When she checked what Hardware she had it wasn't actually what she bought / paid for and was a refurbished computer sold to her under the impression that it was a new one. So I would avoid them as much as possible for computers / electronics, but for DVDs and stuff I will go to them. :D

And my big one, Microsoft. Except I hate the fact that we need Microsoft Office on our computer to be able to share work with school and my mom's co-officers in the organization she leads.

LOL - Wal-Mart does that too, except they skip the refurbished part - they just put it back on the shelf.

When I was working for an ISP locally, we had a customer that had trouble getting on dial-up. Her Vista machine would not load the drivers that came with the system, so she returned it to Wal-Mart.

A week later, an old man came in for similar reasons. He mentioned the system already had a username and password but someone at Wal-Mart who worked in electronics helped him reset the password. When I looked at the machine, I noticed right off the bat it was the exact same machine that the other person had that would not load the drivers. He took it back as well.

That anecdote made my day :D Thanks!

All stores do that unless there is something visually damaged on the device. Most discount them and sell them as "Open Box" items which are non-returnable. That is the path that Wal-mart locally follows. One reason why I never purchase open box items. In California if you purchase a refurbished item and it wasn't marked as such, you can actually sue the company that sold it. They are required to mark refurbished items as such and not sell them as new.

That is entirely false. The price paid per store is not the same. Some vendors get better prices than others. Yes, we own a store. :)

Sometimes we can buy from winn-dixie or wal-mart cheaper than the distributor. Go figure!

IRS??? I avoided as much as I can! LOL

OPEN OFFICE. No need to get M$ Office

i always avoid any company trying to A) lock you into a product and B) companies that force high prices *cough* sony *cough* warner bros *cough*.

I always source their products at the lowest possible price - from another country if i have to